Lori Lightfoot, Toni Preckwinkle and Bill Daley played early in the Chicago Mayor's race

Former federal prosecutor, Lori Lightfoot, Cook County president, Toni Preckwinkle and former US trade secretary, Bill Daley, met in a close three-match in the first round of Chicago. Mayor's race played. Progress in an election that attracted near record low turnout.

With votes scarcer than expected and polls showing half a dozen or more candidates in striking distance, the goal was to break into the top two and qualify for the April 2 run-off election. This is the result if no candidate meets more than 50 percent of the vote for the first time.

Unofficial results counted Lightfoot with 17.4 percent of the vote, Preckwinkle with 15.9 percent and Daley with 14.8 percent with 84 percent of the areas. They were drawn by businessmen Willie Wilson at 10.5%, state officer Susana Mendoza at 9%, attorney Jerry Joyce from the Southwest, with 7.5%, activist and policy consultant Amara Enyia with 7.9% and former CPS council team, Gery Chico, with 6.3%. Chico, Enyia, McCarthy and Mendoza each conceded the race on Tuesday night.

The tough results, the potential for a long night and the prospect of thousands of mail-in-ballots still being returned, meant that candidates were not quick to claim or yield victory. On Tuesday, the election officials reported the city was on the verge of just 34 percent voter turnout. It would fit the first round of elections four years ago and make up the record of 33 percent in 2007 when Mayor Richard M. Daley reached his sixth and final term against two lesser-known candidates.

The 14 candidates holding for the fifth floor office at the City Hall have marked the largest area for the mayor in Chicago's 181-year history. The race to succeed Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who made the surprising announcement after the Labor Day that he will not seek a third term, comes at a central time for Chicago and deployed against & # 39; a continuous investigation into federal corruption at the City Hall.

Many of the candidates have promised to improve policing and reduce crime while promising relief from a year-long succession of tax increases. But most have not pointed out comprehensive plans as to how they will handle the city's pension struggle and budget deficit, but rather hope at a Chicago casino and a share of revenue from legal marijuana as panaceas.

Over the past six months, the mayoral movement has been defined by a series of twists and turns, with no more dominant than federal sin in the city hall. This proposed all the candidates a series of ethical reforms.

The campaign began with a dozen people declaring that they would challenge Emanuel, some with ties to the mayor. Eight of them will make the final vote – Lightfoot, McCarthy, Vallas, Wilson, Enyia, Joyce, Sales-Griffin and Kozlar.

The group's satisfaction with the mayor's departure from the race in September will be brief. The candidates had to recalculate their largely anti-Emanuel campaigns, using their efforts to raise campaign cash and scramble their message a little by four heavyweight candidates who would soon enter the game. Emanuel predicted that none of the announced candidates would become the next mayor. He said it took more than a once-off pony to run America's third-largest city.

Shortly afterwards, the other political ground games entered – Preckwinkle, Daley, Chico and Mendoza. The four candidate candidates combined to raise $ 19.1 million – or more than double the other 10 candidates, which also included late Ford subscribers. and Fioretti.

While the financial benefits also separated the four, the federal corruption investigation at the City Hall did.

Chico, Daley, Preckwinkle and Mendoza each have long-standing ties with Ald Edward Burke. Arent shortly after federal agents caught their city hall and 14th ward offices at the end of November, turned over the windows and took out boxes and computers. The candidates all quickly offered a variety of ethical reforms, including the creation of term restrictions, the prohibition of out-of-money for the general public and the termination of the veto powers. Almanne holds conditions and projects in their neighborhood.

By January, federal authorities charged Burke with attempted extortion. , claiming to have been granted a restaurant magnate needed in its neighborhood in exchange for property tax business at its law firm and a $ 10,000 contribution to another politician. The Tribune reported that the contribution to Preckwinkle had gone, which she said she had returned.

A few weeks later, it became clear that federal sin was not limited to Burke, as apparently it was Ald. Danny Solis wore colleagues on his own for a couple of years while confronting his own allegations of misconduct. Also recorded by the FBI: Powerful House Speaker Michael Madigan, who was doing business at his law firm from a business owner who needed Solis's approval from the City Hall.

While Solis and Madigan were not convicted of the offense, political damage For the foundation, candidates were quick.

The episode set up similar federal probes that served high-ranking members in the administration of Daley's brother, Richard M. Daley, when he served as mayor. The Daley family were also political donors for Burke, who for decades cut at the city hall at the City Hall.

Chico was rejecting his good friend and suggesting Burke, who earlier supported Chico by becoming the most qualified candidate to become mayor. Opponents were also quick to show how Chico listened to Burke and Solis on behalf of clients looking for the city hall for a long time.

Mendoza, who was married to Burke's house, also had the man who helped her start politics on the Southwest. She donated $ 10,000 in Burke campaign donations to charities and did the same with an additional $ 142,000 linked to Solis.

But it was Preckwinkle who carried the Burke blowback brown, bound directly by the 50-year-old's alleged shakedown. from a campaign contribution to Preckwinkle.

She also donated $ 12,000 in Burke money to charity and promised to repay an additional $ 116,000 she received at a fundraiser at the almanager's Gage Park association. Preckwinkle was also left to explain why she hired Burke's son Ed Burke, Jr., to a six-digit job while facing sexual harassment allegations in his previous work with the Cook County sheriff.

The scandals piled Top of other Preckwinkle controversies. She deceived the public when she knew of sexual harassment allegations against her head of staff she had fired. She waited months before she shot her security chief after evidence emerged that a country SUV managed it was being used to transport political material illegally. And just last week, she fired a senior campaign assistant after claiming Nazi's to criticize Lightfoot in a social media post.

This led Preckwinkle to describe the campaign in the final of the race with a single word: "tough."

Whoever chooses the next mayor of Chicago will be greeted in mid-May by a plethora of great challenges.

Over the past three years, the city has struggled to drop repeated attacks of violent crime. 561 killed and 2,948 people shot last year and the police department has a federal consent decision that will manage the reforms in a department with a history of misconduct and excessive violence against minorities.

Chicago must receive an additional $ 1 billion in payments to public employees pensions by 2023, including $ 270 million next year, at a time when taxpayers are already tired after two terms of Emanuel increasing property taxes, while other fees to stabilize the city

And the next mayor is facing an increasing gap between the rich corporate success and thriving development of the center and scores of largely African American which has experienced a sharp decline in population after decades of economic decline and gang violence. 19659002] bruthhart@chicagotribune.com